Valving construction for felt nib marking devices



Dec. 29, 1970 v, DE MOUN EI'AL 3,551,065

VALVING CONSTRUCTION FOR FELT NIB MARKING DEVICES Filed June 13, 1968 at /5 I 11 x U I f I f M if United States Patent U.S. Cl. 401-206 1 'Claim ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An improved valving construction for felt nib marking devices including a body member forming a chamber at an upper end thereof in direct contact with a supply of inking material, a reciprocating resiliently urged valve disposed within said chamber, a bore communicating directly with the lower end of said chamber, a grooved elongated felt nib disposed within said bore to project outwardly thereof at the lower end of said bore, pressure applied to the lower end of said nib forcing the same to project the upper end thereof directly into the chamber, against the action of resilient means operating upon the valve, whereby upon the release of pressure, said valve may exert a pumping action forcing inking material into direct communication with the grooves in the nib to be conducted rapidly to the exposed lower end of the nib.

This invention relates generally to the field of felt nib marking devices, of a type widely used for industrial marking, in commerical art work, and similar applications, and more particularly to an improved valving construction to be used in connection with such devices.

It is known in the art to provide marking devices of the above described class which include a hollow elongated barrel containing a supply of fluid ink, and a valving means at the lower end of said barrel communicating with a felt nib which is mounted for slidable movement within a bore to operate a valving means. The valving means usually includes a stem in contact with the upper end of the nib, the stern projecting through a counter bore to open the valve to permit ink to flow through the counter bore to the upper surface of the nib. Ink flows through the nib by capillary action to the tip for dispensing upon contact with a surface to be marked.

Once the ink flow to the tip of the nib is established, re-inking of the nib is accomplished by pressing downwardly on the point to open the valve as required. The principal difliculty with constructions of this type has been the amount of time necessary to first ink the nib, where the marking device has previously been unused. The felt nib, in order to provide requisite stiffness has a normal- 1y been treated with a resin, and capillary flow is accordingly reduced, as compared with conventional untreated felt. Thus, the valve must be held in an open condition by continuous pressure for a considerable period of time until the first charge of ink reaches the exposed tip of the nib member.

It is therefore among the principal objects of the present invention to provide an improved valving construction in which the time necessary to initially saturate the nib member has been reduced to a small fraction of that previously required.

Another object of the invention lies in the provision of an improved valving construction employing fewer moving parts than has heretofore been necessary in prior art constructions.

Yet another object of the invention lies in the provision of an improved valving construction in which the upper end of the felt nib is employed to directly contact 3,551,065 Patented Dec. 29, 1970 the lower surface of the valve, and simultaneously extend directly into the ink chamber, so that upon release of pressure upon the exposed outer tip of the nib member, the valve may exert a pumping action tending to bring fluid ink into direct contact with the cylindrical side surfaces of the nib member, and expedite the saturation thereof through capillary action.

Yet another object of the invention lies in the provision of improved valving construction of the class described in which the nib member is provided with axially disposed grooves which project directly into the inking chamber, to receive a charge of ink upon actuation of the valve member, and conduct the ink along the grooves to the lower end of the nib member, whereby initial time required for complete nib member saturation is reduced.

A feature of the disclosed embodiment lies in the fact that the upper end surface of the nib directly contacts the head of the valving means, the valve stem serving only to facilitate assembly of the device and guide the valve spring.

These objects and feature will become more clearly apparent during the progress of the following disclosure, and be pointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawing, to which reference will be made in the specification, similar reference characters have been employed to designate corresponding parts throughout the several views.

FIG. 1 is an exploded view in elevation of an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary central longitudinal sectional view of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary enlarged longitudinal sectional view thereof, corresponding to that seen in FIG. 2, but showing certain of the component parts in altered relative position.

FIG. 4 is a transverse sectional view as seen from the plane 44 in FIG. 2.

In accordance with the invention, the device, generally indicated by reference character 10, comprises an elongated tubular barrel 11, a first end 12 of which may include threaded cap retaining means 13, selectively engaging a cap 14 when the device is in use. A second end 15 encloses a valve element 16, through which marking fluid (not shown) passes outwardly of the device.

The valve element 16 is best understood from a consideration of FIGS. 2 and 3, and includes a main body member 20, a poppet valve member 21, a valve spring member 22 and a felt nib member 23.

The main body member 20 is preferably formed as a synthetic resinous molding, and includes an upper hollow cylindrical portion 26 having an outer wall 27, and upper wall 28. The wall 28 includes a centrally disposed opening 29 leading to a cylindrical chamber 30. At the lower end of the wall 27 is a flanged portion 31 the outer periphery 32 of which engages a headed over portion 33 of the barrel 11 to be retained thereby.

Disposed downwardly from the flanged portion 31 is an outwardly extending portion 34 which may include a threaded cap retaining surface 35 and a tapered portion 36 forming a tip. A through bore 37 extends through the portion 34 to communicate with the lower end of the chamber 30.

Referring to FIG. 3, the chamber 30 includes a frustoconical valve seating surface 39 leading to a cylindrical wall 40, in turn communicating with an upper inner surface 41 which serves as a back stop for the valve spring member 22. During assembly of the valve element, the upper wall 28 is formed by heading over a portion of the outer wall 27 in well known manner.

The poppet valve member 21 is preferably formed as a molding of synthetic resinous rubber, such as neoprene or the like, so as to be impervious to the marking fluid employed. It includes a valve stem portion 44 and a head portion 45 defining first and second planar surfaces 46 and 47, respectively, a peripheral surface 48 forming a limited clearance with respect to the surface 40, and a frusto-conical surface 49 selectively sealing with the surface 39.

The valve spring 22 is of upwardly and downwardly tapering configuration, including an upper end 51 of diameter slightly smaller than that of the opening 29, and a lower end 52 corresponding in diameter to that of the upper end 51, whereby the valve stem portion 44 is ac curately aligned with respect to the valve seating surface.

The felt nib member 23 is of cylindrical configuration, and is bounded by an upper end surface 55, a cylindrical surface 56 corresponding in diameter to that of the bore 37, and a tapered lower end 57. Extending into the surface 56 are a plurality of parallel generally axially disposed grooves 58 (see FIG. 4) along which marking fluid may flow.

Operation of the device will be understood from a comparison of FIGS. 2 and 3. Pressure on the lower end of the nib member 23 is transmitted directly to the surface 47 of the valve member 21, causing the same to move from the position shown in FIG. 2 to that shown in FIG. 3. Owing to clearances existing between the valve member and the side of the hollow cylindrical portion 26, a quantity of ink will slip past the peripheral surface 48 and flow beneath the valve member. It will be understood that the entire volume above the surface 46 is occupied by ink or marking material. The ink will flow downwardly, being guided by the frusto-conical valve seating surface 39 to the planar surface 38 where it contacts the surface 56 of the nib member 23. In the position shown in FIG. 3, ink may also enter the grooves 58 and flow directly downwardly under capillary action and gravity to speed the saturation of the nib member. It will be observed that a substantial area of the surface 56 is at this point disposed within the portion 26, so that, as contrasted with prior art devices, the entry of the marking fluid is not confined to the upper end surface 55. As a result, within a relatively short period of time, the entire nib is fully saturated.

It will be observed that as the spring 22 is compressed as shown in FIG. 3, the convolutions at the upper portion thereof tend to overlap and close, so that ink within the chamber 30 is forced past the surface 48 to lie beneath the valve surface 49, and contact the nib. This pumping action tends to force the ink directly against the nib, whereby quick saturation is achieved.

We wish it to be understood that we do not consider 4 the invention limited to the precise details of structure shown and set forth in this specification, for obvious modifications will occur to those skilled in the art to which the invention pertains.

We claim: 1. Improve valving construction for felt nib marking devices comprising: a body member having therein an upper cylindrical configured chamber capable of retaining a supply of marking fluid and having a surface at a lower end of said chamber forming a valve seat, there being an open ended cylindrical bore in said body extending downwardly from said chamber, a cylindricallyshaped nib member of length greater than said bore, said nib member being of substantially the same outside diameter as the inside diameter of the bore and slidably disposed within said bore to project outwardly at a lower end thereof, and selectively projectable into said chamber, said nib member having axially aligned grooves on an outer cylindrical surface thereof extending upwardly a distance sufficient to project into said chamber; a valve member slidable disposed within said chamber and having a lower planer surface directly contacting an upper end planer surface of said nib member to be actuated by movement thereof whereby said nib is removable from said bore while maintaining a sealed relation between said valve and said valve seat to isolate marking fluid within the chamber from the area outside the chamber, resilient means cooperating on said valve member to urge the same to contact said valve seat, and limiting the effective length of the path of movement of said valve member; said nib member being formed of a saturable felt; whereby, upon the exertion of pressure upon the lower end of said nib member, said nib member may project directly into said chamber to expose said grooves therein to direct contact with marking fluid in said chamber, and release of said valve may serve to force said fluid thereagainst.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,029,152 1/1936 Bonkowski 40126OX 2,100,157 11/1937 Chandler 401-205X 3,247,828 4/1966 Basham 401260X 3,266,079 8/1966 Schwartzman 401-206X 3,377,124 4/1968 Matsumoto 401-206X FOREIGN PATENTS 664,679 7/1964 Italy 401--260 LAWRENCE CHARLES, Primary Examiner 

